Aguilera Botches Our National Anthem

[JaredJames]

Try Sanskrit. One transliteration of the alphabet is

Are people trying to 'one up' me with language?

 

[mheslep]

If you're going to embellish at all, do it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE&feature=related".

Yeah that's doing it right. Thanks mugaliens, both for the objection to Aquilera and for posting the doing it right version.

Whitney. That woman, in or our of rehab, makes everyone else sound like a Simon Cowell reject on American Idol in comparison.

 

[humanino]

I agree that interpreting a national anthem is very important

Of course :


Beethoven's Ode to Joy was a good choice for Europe.

 

[qspeechc]

AlephZero are you a linguist, or do you just have a gift for languages?

 

[Nicodemus]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/...-Super-Bowl-national-anthem-020611?GT1=39002".

I'm sorry, but I do not appreciate it when an "artist" can't remember her lines while over-artistrating (yes, my very own word) so badly that the entire theme and purpose of our National Anthem are lost.

It's a song about the immense immense love of, and sacrifice for our country, as born by those who fought to wrest it into existence, as well as all those who fought since to preserve it:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!​

It's not a showcase for artists. Aguilera's (failed) attempt to misuse it as such is reprehensible.

If you're going to embellish at all, do it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE&feature=related".

http://www.usa-flag-site.org/song-lyrics/star-spangled-banner.shtml"

On the subject of art, is a song written by a lawyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key to the tune of a British drinking song http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Anacreon_in_Heaven really so important?

That said I have no particular need to hear it repeated at every sporting event, no matter how minor. In fact, unless we're playing another nation, I don't see the point at all. We've created this to showcase "talents", be the real (7 year old) or manufactured charctatures (Aguilera). I think the republic can stand even against this; remember, here are the original lyrics to our proud Hymn:

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw234.html

The
ANACREONTIC SONG

as Sung at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand

the Words by
RALPH TOMLINSON ESQ R, late President of that SOCIETY.

————————Price 6d.————————

LONDON
Printed by Longman and Broderip. N o26, Cheapside and N o13, Hay Market



1
To ANACREON in Heav'n, where he sat in full Glee,
A few Sons of Harmony sent a Petition,
That He their Inspirer and Patron wou'd be;
When this Answer arriv'd from the JOLLY OLD GRECIAN
"Voice, Fiddle, and Flute,
"No longer be mute,
"I'll lend you my Name and inspire you to boot,
"And, besides, I'll instruct you like me, to intwine
"The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS's Vine.

2
The news through OLYMPUS immediately flew;
When OLD THUNDER pretended to give himself Airs_
If these Mortals are suffer'd their Scheme to pursue,
The Devil a Goddess will stay above Stairs.
"Hark! already they cry,
"In Transports of Joy
"Away to the Sons of ANACREON we'll fly,
"And there, with good Fellows, we'll learn to intwine
"The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS'S Vine.

3
"The YELLOW-HAIR'D GOD and his nine fusty Maids
"From HELICON'S Banks will incontinent flee,
"IDALIA will boast but of tenantless Shades,
"And the bi-forked Hill a mere Desart will be
"My Thunder, no fear on't,
"Shall soon do it's Errand,
"And, dam'me! I'll swinge the Ringleaders I warrant,
"I'll trim the young Dogs, for thus daring to twine
"The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS'S Vine.

4
APOLLO rose up; and said, "Pr'ythee ne'er quarrel,
"Good King of the Gods with my Vot'ries below:
"Your Thunder is useless_then, shewing his Laurel,
Cry'd. "Sic evitabile fulmen, you know!
"Then over each Head
"My Laurels I'll spread
"So my Sons from your Crackers no Mischief shall dread,
"Whilst snug in their Club-Room, they Jovially twine
"The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS'S Vine.

5
Next MOMUS got up, with his risible Phiz,
And swore with APOLLO he'd cheerfull join_
"The full Tide of Harmony still shall be his,
"But the Song, and the Catch, & the Laugh shall bemine
"Then, JOVE, be not jealous
Of these honest Fellows,
Cry'd JOVE, "We relent, since the Truth you now tell us;
"And swear, by OLD STYX, that they long shall entwine
"The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS'S Vine.

6
Ye Sons of ANACREON, then, join Hand in Hand;
Preserve Unanimity, Friendship, and Love!
'Tis your's to support what's so happily plann'd;
You've the Sanction of Gods, and the FIAT of JOVE.
While thus we agree
Our Toast let it be.
May our Club flourish happy, united and free!
And long may the Sons of ANACREON intwine
The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS'S Vine.

If anyone has a right to be sore, probably it's Mr. Tomlinson. :p

 

[texasblitzem]

Not true, there is a lot of diacritics we don't use.

These are ALL letters used in Polish: ąćęłńóśżź

These are SOME examples of letters NOT used in Polish: àåçñîĉĝěđďčįäřňĵĥáŝžš

As you see, we are not egoistic and we left plenty for other nations.

To be honest, we saved on diacritical marks using digraphs (like sz, cz, dż, rz) to denote some of the consonants.

Do you have the game Scrabble in Poland? How many Z's are there?

 

[Nicodemus]

Do you have the game Scrabble in Poland? How many Z's are there?

Wow, I'm so glad I actually checked and didn't just laugh.

Polish-language editions of Scrabble use these 100 tiles.

2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
1 point: A ×9, I ×8, E ×7, O ×6, N ×5, Z ×5, R ×4, S ×4, W ×4
2 points: Y ×4, C ×3, D ×3, K ×3, L ×3, M ×3, P ×3, T ×3
3 points: B ×2, G ×2, H ×2, J ×2, Ł ×2, U ×2
5 points: Ą ×1, Ę ×1, F ×1, Ó ×1, Ś ×1, Ż ×1
6 points: Ć ×1
7 points: Ń ×1
9 points: Ź ×1
This set is used since 2000. Before that year, a slightly different configuration was used: Ź was worth 7 points, F was worth 4 points. There were 2 F's, and 8 A's. The letters Q, V and X are also absent and blank tiles cannot be used to represent these.

That is a real paucity of Z's if I'm Polish, I think. More interesting, they have a tile listing for ALL Scrabble: Afrikaans, Polish, Russian, Norwegian, Romanian... and so on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_letter_distributions

Ugh, I just realized that I missed the first 5 Z's. So much for a paucity!

 

[Pengwuino]

Russian National Anthem is great:

Lovely. I feel conquered already.

 

[micromass]

Nothing can beat the prime minister of Belgium. When he was asked to sing the national anthem of Belgium, he started out by singing the anthem of France And he was dead serious too...

 

[Nicodemus]

Nothing can beat the prime minister of Belgium. When he was asked to sing the national anthem of Belgium, he started out by singing the anthem of France And he was dead serious too...

Serious... you mean he MEANT to do that? Wow, talk about publicly announcing that you won't seek office again. :0

 

[micromass]

No, he just didn't know what the national anthem was. At least, that's what I think.

And the sad thing is, that he is still in office

 

[Nicodemus]

No, he just didn't know what the national anthem was. At least, that's what I think.

And the sad thing is, that he is still in office

I uh, wow. Now THAT would be a case when botching the anthem would definitely annoy me.

 

[turbo]

Luckily (it seems) I missed Aguilara's "performance". I tuned in just in time for the coin-toss and kickoff. Actually I hate football, but I wanted to catch the quarterly scores so I could see if my wife and I won a share of the $1000 pool. Plus, catch the ads, which weren't so great this year.

 

[mugaliens]

She didn't even realize she botched it, that's what's so bad.

I would expected an apology, at least for forgetting the words.

 

[turbo]

I don't remember if Robert Goulet apologized. It was a big issue for the Clay-Liston fight.

 

[Evo]

I would expected an apology, at least for forgetting the words.

She apologized.

 

[Borek]

 

[Moonbear]

I agree with what a colleague at work said, there's 100,000? people in the stadium for the SuperBowl, take ownership of the the thing and sing it yourselves. No single voice could beat that.

That's what I was thinking too, when, after thinking I'd been spared the horror by watching the Puppy Bowl instead of the Super Bowl, I was assaulted with Aguilera's version on the Monday morning news.

My alternative suggestion, considering how many celebrities botch it, is to do a talent search among high school students and reward one with a college scholarship for the performance. At least then if it's botched, you can blame it on them not being used to performing for such a large audience.

 

[Chi Meson]

For some reason, I'm thinking Randy Newman, rolled out to center field with a piano. He starts a few, cords and leans into the mike saying "Now I want each one of you to sing along with me..." and then fade out his mike.

You know damm well, that's the one people will be talking about for years.

 

[leroyjenkens]

I hate that thing where she sings and pulls the mic far away from her face, like getting some arm action going will help.

I don't see why a national anthem is needed for a football game. It's not like the honor of the nation is at stake. It's just two teams, both from America, playing with a ball.

 

[micromass]

I don't see why a national anthem is needed for a football game. It's not like the honor of the nation is at stake. It's just two teams, both from America, playing with a ball.

Exactly my thoughts! But then again, I'm not american, so there's probably something I don't understand about it...

 

[mugaliens]

Thanks, Borek - that was much better!

 

[mugaliens]

She apologized.

Really? When? Where? No link, Evo? Come on...

For some reason, I'm thinking Randy Newman...

As long as he could belt out our National Anthem with the same gusto he demonstrated in that Die Hard commercial a year or two ago...

Exactly my thoughts! But then again, I'm not american, so there's probably something I don't understand about it...

I dunno. Something about millions of Americans having died for our country, throughout the Revolutionary, Second Cherokee, Chikamauga, Northwest India, Shay's Rebellion Whiskey Rebellion, Quasi, Frie's, Barbary, Spanish, Gulf of Mexico, West Florida, Amelia Island, War of 1812, Marquesas Islands, Spanish Florida, Caribbean, Algiers, Tripoli (source of the Marine Corps Hymn), Amelia Island, Oregon, Africa...

Geez, people! Did you all fail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wars#Extraterritorial_and_major_domestic_deployments"? Crickey!

 

[BobG]

I dunno. Something about millions of Americans having died for our country, throughout the Revolutionary, Second Cherokee, Chikamauga, Northwest India, Shay's Rebellion Whiskey Rebellion, Quasi, Frie's, Barbary, Spanish, Gulf of Mexico, West Florida, Amelia Island, War of 1812, Marquesas Islands, Spanish Florida, Caribbean, Algiers, Tripoli (source of the Marine Corps Hymn), Amelia Island, Oregon, Africa...

Geez, people! Did you all fail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wars#Extraterritorial_and_major_domestic_deployments"? Crickey!

Maybe over 1 million. About 1.2 to 1.3 million if you count Confederate casualties, but I'm not sure you should count troops that died fighting against the US.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

Maybe less official, but easier to read (and he does count Confederate deaths):

http://www.militaryfactory.com/american_war_deaths.asp

 

[Borek]

Honestly, I don't see a link between number of deaths and football. Actually I wonder if connecting these things is not abuse of the memory of these people. When the anthem is sang at every occasion it becomes a routine and soon nobody remembers what it is all about.

 

[BobG]

Honestly, I don't see a link between number of deaths and football. Actually I wonder if connecting these things is not abuse of the memory of these people. When the anthem is sang at every occasion it becomes a routine and soon nobody remembers what it is all about.

Admittedly, saying something is worth dying for is a lot different than saying the number of deaths are what make something valuable (otherwise we'd sing drinking songs before every football game).

I think your logic might equally fail, though. Try telling your wife you'll only tell her you love her on Valentine's Day because doing so more often might dilute its meaning.

There's nothing wrong with singing the national anthem often, regardless of which song we happened to choose for the national anthem and regardless of how well the person sings it (provided they make an honest effort at it - the Rosanne Barr performance someone mentioned was just flat out disrepectful).

And Aguilera did apologize for her mistake. While this article only snips one line from her statement, it at least puts into perspective that even a singer that's sung the national anthem many times can screw up: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657367/christina-aguilera-super-bowl.jhtml

 

[Borek]

I think your logic might equally fail, though. Try telling your wife you'll only tell her you love her on Valentine's Day because doing so more often might dilute its meaning.

You are pointing out the other extreme - and both are IMHO equally wrong. There must be some reasonable point in between.

 

[Evo]

I don't see why a national anthem is needed for a football game. It's not like the honor of the nation is at stake. It's just two teams, both from America, playing with a ball.

I don't see why it's played/sung either. It doesn't make sense to me. It's a game. Seems a bit insulting to choose a game with people swilling beer and eating bad nachos and wearing odd foam things as a time to play the National Anthem.

I really don't get it.

 

[BobG]

By the way, assuming she did realize she botched the lyrics as soon as she sung them, what would have been the proper response. Stop singing, tell the person playing the music to stop, then start the entire song over? Recover as best she could and go ahead and finish the song?

I don't think one can assume she didn't realize she botched the lyrics just because she kept on singing.

 

[mugaliens]

Maybe over 1 million. About 1.2 to 1.3 million if you count Confederate casualties, but I'm not sure you should count troops that died fighting against the US.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

Maybe less official, but easier to read (and he does count Confederate deaths):

http://www.militaryfactory.com/american_war_deaths.asp

Thanks for the FACTS, BobG. All too often, people are emotionally swept to "report" ideals, rather than facts.

Kudos to you, Sir!

 

[Evo]

By the way, assuming she did realize she botched the lyrics as soon as she sung them, what would have been the proper response. Stop singing, tell the person playing the music to stop, then start the entire song over? Recover as best she could and go ahead and finish the song?

I don't think one can assume she didn't realize she botched the lyrics just because she kept on singing.

You can normally see the look on a singer's face when they notice they goofed up, usually it also causes them to stutter at the point of realization. She exhibited no signs that she realized her mistake. She seemed totally oblivious.

I don't blame her for messing up the lyrics, I blame her for singing it so crappily.

 

[mugaliens]

I don't see why it's played/sung either. It doesn't make sense to me. It's a game. Seems a bit insulting to choose a game with people swilling beer and eating bad nachos and wearing odd foam things as a time to play the National Anthem.

I really don't get it.

So, from your own post, do you hold a nation's anthem to be sacrosanct? Or do you revet it's rendition to CH?

I don't blame her for messing up the lyrics...

I sang our National Anthem at a Virginia Tech Basketball game in the 1980s. I spent perhaps 20 minutes ensuring I knew the words, and nervous as I was, it went off without a hitch, so YES, I DO blame her for messing up the lyrics! Each and every one of us could retire on less than half of what she "earned" while botching our national anthem.

I blame her for singing it so crappily.

Amen.

 

[Evo]

So, from your own post, do you hold a nation's anthem to be sacrosanct?

I just don't really care for it as music. I think it's fine for military events and 4th of July celebrations. I don't see a need for it to be a sports event song.

Or do you revet it's rendition to CH?

I don't understand what you're saying here.

 

[mugaliens]

I really don't get it.

Study history. Learn how many folks have given their lives over the last 235 years to secure and protect the freedoms you enjoy today.

If you still "don't http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States" ," might I suggest you move to another country whose populace shares your "don't get it" beliefs?